Raft for transporting timber



A. H. BRYANT ET AL RAFT FOR TRANSPORTING TIMBER A ug. 2.8, 1928.

Filed July 6,. 1927 INI/ENTORJ faim/w 6. Tac/r Patented Aug. 28, 1928.

@UNITED-:STA TEENS 1,682,064 PATENT oFFlc-E.

laminar i1; ianxhir'r 1ann EWARDGQ froKQorronrLNn, OREGON.

'Barr -F'on 'risiansronrrne lTransen;

Application filed July '6,

movement they are prone to set up such lev erageas to cause the breaking of the lashings, l and thus permitthe raft to'go to pieces; and that such as likely to occur even in only moderately rough Water.

Ve attain our object by providing in the first place a. rectangular frame composed of l rigid, preferably one-piece parallel spaced buoyant side-members, extending from end to end of the frame, and tied together at their ends by end-members or spreaders.

Within such frame the logs are then sup- 210 ported and secured by suitable cables, fastened to the sides of the frame and extending around the bottom and top of the logs comprising the raft. By this construction, the angular movement of the logs relatively to "5 each other in the longitudinal, vertical or transverse planes of the raft is effectively prevented, and no leverage is set up tending to break the cables.

A further feature of our invent-ion is to build a raft capable of Heating and being moved in shallow water, as over a bar. This result we attain by using for-the sides of the raft frame-members having greater buoyancy than the logs composing the raft, and thereby to add to and increase t-he buoyancy of the raft as a whole.

To this end, we employ for the sides of the frame hollow metal, or other buoyant members of such length as to extend from end to end of the raft, and of sufficient cross section to be capable of exerting a potent buoyancy effect upon the raft.

Other features of our raft as well as the details of construction thereof are hereinafter fully described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l shows a plan of our raft wit-hout its load, the cables secured to the sidev members of the raft frame for supporting a load being shown;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of our raft loaded with logs; and

Fig. 3 is a larger sca-led diagrammatic cross section of our raft, showing the same as carrying a load of logs and illustrating by the position of the raft relatively to surface 1927. Sei'fial No. 203,800.

ofthe'water the buoyancy which the frame of our raft'adds to the raft as a whole; and Figs. 4 and 5 are details of a simple mode for constructing our raft frame. l .'As shown in the drawings, our raft consists of aframe composedof side members a, a extending the'full length of the. frame and made .oflsome material possessing greater buoyancy thanthe logs with which the raft is loaded. f Preferably, we use one piece metal pontoons for the sides of our raft; that is to say, the pontoons being of such length as to extend from end to end of the raft frame.

The ends of the side members of our frame are connected by suitable spreaders Z2, b. These may consist of logs b on the ends of which are secured caps c provided with an eye Z adapted to be placed on the ends a2 of the side members, a, a, and secured against slipping ott as by a key e as illustrated by Fig. si. To the side members a., a is secured a nett-ing as f, the netting being made of cables and arranged to support the logs which shall constitute the load of the raft.

The load of logs g is secured in place on the netting f by cables 7L as more clearlv shown by Fig. 3. L

In order to provide a strong tie for the load supporting netting f and the cables L, we encircle the side members or pontoons a, a with bands t', preferably using railroad rails for that purpose and to such bands secure clevices to which the cables of the loadsupporting netting f or the load-securing cables 7L are fastened. To prevent the chafing of the cables composing the load-supporting netting the latter is preferably made of diverging short cable lengths L tied together by aring 7c as illustrated by Fig. 5.

As previously mentioned, the side-members are constructed to supplement, and increase materially, the buoyancy of the load of the logs, so that the load may be floated in shallow water; and to this end the load-supporting netting f is arranged relatively to t-he spreaders b of the raft-frame so as to support the bottom of the load substantially on the plane of the bottom of the side members a, a of the raft frame.

Ve claim:

l. A raft ofthe character described comprising a substantially rectangular frame composed of rigid side-members extending the full length of the frame and rigid bands secured on the side-members, fastening elements secured to said bands, load carrying lll) members comprising diverging cable-lengths secured to said fastening elements of the sidemembers and connected intermediate the latter, load securing cables alsofastened to said fastening elements. y

2. A raft of the character described com prising a substantially rectangular frame composed of rigid pontoon-like side-members extending the full length of the frame and rigid bands secured on theV side-members, spreaders connecting the 'ends of said side members, fastening elements secured tol said bands, load carrying members, load securing cables also fastened to said fastening elements, the load carrying cables being arranged relatively to the said spreaders of the raft-frame, so asto support the bottom of the loadapproximately in the plane of the bottom of the side members of the raft-frame.

3. A raft of the character described comprising a substantially rectangular frame composed of rigid pontoon-like si de-meinbers extending the full length of the frame, rigid bands secured on'the'side-'members, spreaders connecting the ends of said side members, fastening elements secured to said bands, load carrying members comprising diverging cable-lengths secured to said fastening elements of the side-members and connected intermediate the latter load lsecuring vcables also fastened to said fastening elements, the load carrying cables being arranged relatively to the said spreaders of the raft-frame, so as to'support the bottom of the load approxi mately in the nplane of the bottom ofthe side members of the raft-frame.

ALBERT H. BRYANT.

EDWARDG. TUCK. 

